Good for you Doris....although what is worse for me is this crap called gratuitous violence. There is a new movie called "A Good Day To Die Hard" and from the preview on the ABC morning show, Bruce Willis cohosting, I saw lots of people solving problems by machine guning each other while the hosts were laughing....the same hosts that talk about what we can do about gun violence in Chicago....can anyone wonder where fifth graders get ideas on how to solve problems at schools? I have less of a problem with violence where it is historically accurate (the start of "Lincoln" ) I would like to see Zero dark Thirty but I would like to see it at home so I can fast forward through anything disturbing.
(rant alert) I just heard that the most violent video game out there, CAll to Duty, has sold 40 million copies....and that is only one game. Around here, two fifth graders were caught plotting to take a girl away with a .45 auto they had stolen and knife her to death. She had teased them. Be thankful you lived when you did....rant alert over.

I know what you mean, Chris. It can't be good for people, especially children, to watch such a constant stream of violent acts. It's no coincidence that the only two Bruce Willis movies I've ever seen are The Sixth Sense and Nobody's Fool. They're how I know he's a good actor.

Yes, he is a good actor, and that is the frustrating part. Now why cant he be a good person? And Arnold Schwartinager, an ex governor, I hear is now coming back to show kids that violence is the answer. National Public Radio says that now women are getting into these violent video games....and women almost never commit mass murder....maybe that will change now.
Chris who was glad he lived when people could leave their doors unlocked

Originally Posted by Olympia

I know what you mean, Chris. It can't be good for people, especially children, to watch such a constant stream of violent acts. It's no coincidence that the only two Bruce Willis movies I've ever seen are The Sixth Sense and Nobody's Fool. They're how I know he's a good actor.

I dunno Chris. Back in the day, when our kids were young, we lived in a little town in northern Vermont. I recall hearing a particular woman going on about how she never locked her door. And Mr. Ski & I laughing over it later, because her kids were the town thieves; of course they weren't stealing from her.

I don't believe people are any better or worse today, intrinsically than they were in the past.

But I think it's fair to say that people Felt safer then, but they Were not safer.

When something, or someone disappeared, they were apt to say the thing "went west" rather than head off to the police station, or that people had run off to sea, off with the gypsies, gone west, ran away with the circus. The assumption was the person was probably OK somewhere. Nowadays, it's much rarer for people to assume someone just ran away To Something. People go to the police right away. And that's why the bodies are found, at least, and sometimes the people are found.

As Agatha Christie's Miss Marple said, you encounter the full spectrum of evil in a small village. I'd add to your description the thought that though I agree that human nature hasn't changed, the hardware has. A small number of people can do a lot more damage with today's armaments.

I see things more from the city perspective, because I'm a lifelong city slicker. We have to concede that something has changed in certain communities, which were always rough but were viable in a way that today they're not. (One theory is that there used to be local industrial jobs available, which have now evaporated, so there is no stable economic structure.) I'm thinking parts of Chicago and Detroit, for example, where it's almost impossible to make it out alive. People leave either in a box or in handcuffs. That being said, it was even worse in the 1970s and 1980s and has actually gotten better in many cities.

) I'm thinking parts of Chicago and Detroit, for example, where it's almost impossible to make it out alive. People leave either in a box or in handcuffs. That being said, it was even worse in the 1970s and 1980s and has actually gotten better in many cities.

Yes, I think the level of crime and the areas that are too risky for a non-resident to enter change, ebb & flow, but human nature is neither better or worse. It is true that available, decent opportunity for people helps; high unemployment means high crime; people have to survive somehow.

Reading Dickens causes one to understand that we still have depths of crime yet to fathom in this country.

Silverlinings playbook-most would like it, I just was too tired. Lawrence is a good actress but an Oscar worthy role? She is lucky-no huge talent-nor a great beauty. I guess it was a drought year for actresses getting good roles. Oscar by default. I shoulda seen Argo-historical or not. I'll have to rent SLP and give it better shot.

We disagree. I grew up in a middle class suburb outside of Chicago. Was there petty crime? Yes. I am sure there always has been. But check on when the first bank armed robbery was in this country.....check on the number of true child abductions (not by know people or relatives) in the 1960....no one thought twice about letting their grade school kids walk to school, or ride their bikes.....in the 1950s, it would have been nothing to stop by the side of the road and help someone change a tire....now, there is a certain saftey procedure savy people use (that we civilians in the state patrol were taught) if you decide to stop for someone as criminals have learned its a great way to rob and or hijack someone. With the advent of gangs and organized crime and drugs, things have become much less safe. One of my friends who used to volenter to drive the assistace van up and down the intestate helping people who were broke down, like I did, stopped to help a person who happened to be a wanted felon...something didnt feel right to him and he drove off. How many times in the 1950s did you hear the words "car hijacking" I maintain we have allowed a whole new breed of citizen, who is basically a preditory anarchist, flourish in our society. Petty criminals arent even punished anymore. You can run out of a walmart with a vaccum cleaner and no one will bother you and the police wont do anything even if you get the crimimal's license plate number. Try that in 1956. The most scarry factoid is that in the City of Chicago, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, only have the gang members caught with stolen guns or who have guns illeaglly ever are prosecuted.....
People are about the same when they come out of the womb. Its what happens afterwords that makes us a much less safe society.

Originally Posted by dorispulaski

I dunno Chris. Back in the day, when our kids were young, we lived in a little town in northern Vermont. I recall hearing a particular woman going on about how she never locked her door. And Mr. Ski & I laughing over it later, because her kids were the town thieves; of course they weren't stealing from her.

I don't believe people are any better or worse today, intrinsically than they were in the past.

But I think it's fair to say that people Felt safer then, but they Were not safer.

When something, or someone disappeared, they were apt to say the thing "went west" rather than head off to the police station, or that people had run off to sea, off with the gypsies, gone west, ran away with the circus. The assumption was the person was probably OK somewhere. Nowadays, it's much rarer for people to assume someone just ran away To Something. People go to the police right away. And that's why the bodies are found, at least, and sometimes the people are found.

This is exactly how I feel.....I guess I will see Argo some time to see what all the fuss is about....

Originally Posted by skateluvr

Silverlinings playbook-most would like it, I just was too tired. Lawrence is a good actress but an Oscar worthy role? She is lucky-no huge talent-nor a great beauty. I guess it was a drought year for actresses getting good roles. Oscar by default. I shoulda seen Argo-historical or not. I'll have to rent SLP and give it better shot.

I remember the year As Good As It Gets came out. Not only were both the male and female leads nominated for Oscars, but I believe the supporting actor, Greg Kinnear, was also nominated. Even more amazingly, both Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson won. While the film was very nice, I don't see it as the sort of heavyweight movie that would earn two acting Oscars and almost get a third. That's the kind of thing you expect for On the Waterfront, not for a pleasant little comedy with a totally unrealistic main character.

Maybe Silver Linings Playbook will strike many viewers the same way. Or maybe the chemistry of the performers mixes so perfectly with the originality of the story that, though modest, it really hits the bull's eye in a way that few other movies do this season.

I did not see Zero Dark Thirty and I won't since doris mentioned torture scenes. But surely Jessica Chastain's portrayal of a female seal in a movie that was so well reviewed would have beat out the very popular young JLaw. I think the Oscar is sometimes for a few efforts. Hollywood liked her in Winter's Bone. Ugh what a gruesome film- sad and accurate too. And then she is like a folk hero for the very Lucrative Hunger Games. She was good in both movies. She can act. I think Hollywood insiders who vote love the money Hunger Games made and a franchise or trilogy is a boon to many.

I haven't seen Chastain, but clearly the "hot" young actress that is Jlaw is riding a huge popularity wave. Me, I just think she is very lucky like so many young attractive girls who hit big. I PERSONALLY THOUGHT SANDRA BULLOCK WAS JUST OK AS THE MOM IN A GREAT TRUE STORY. sorry caps stuck, not yelling. I felt it was about a body of work over many years and the popularity of "cool" Sandra.

If you watched the oscars, the funniest moment was lothario Jack Nicholson at age 75 (or more) hitting on the very shapely Ms Lawrence (age 22). He is sad he is too old for a romance I read a few years back, but he sure was the comic relief. I love it that this man who used and dumped so many women is a laughable Grandpa to the hot young things. jack said he used to feel he was "irresistable" to women. Ummmm....was he ever a good looking guy? He claims he has great manners and was raised by all women. Contrasting him with the legendary Warren Beatty, who said he bedded 12,000 women. Yet he married at 54, adores his wife and four children. I cannot imagine how Annette found the courage to marry him and have a big family. Of course she was 20 years plus younger and stunning. She does not do the plastic thing, and they have lasted 20 years. I guess Warren was quite tired of bedhopping. I do feel he must be lying about the number.

If the book is to be believed (and Beatty is saying it isn't), Beatty would have had to sleep with around 255 different women a year, for 50 years. There are 18,262 days in 50 years (including leap years), which means he would have had to sleep with someone new every 1.4 days. Or every 34 hours.

Suppose that Beatty has been faithful to Annette Benning during his 18 year marriage. That gives him 35 years to squeeze in 12,774 women, at roughly 364 a year.

Let's imagine that 1 out of every 3 sexual encounters was a threesome. This means that Beatty would have slept with 4,258 people during threesomes. And 8,516 women he slept with during single partner encounters.

I did not see Zero Dark Thirty and I won't since doris mentioned torture scenes. But surely Jessica Chastain's portrayal of a female seal in a movie that was so well reviewed would have beat out the very popular young JLaw. I think the Oscar is sometimes for a few efforts. Hollywood liked her in Winter's Bone. Ugh what a gruesome film- sad and accurate too. And then she is like a folk hero for the very Lucrative Hunger Games. She was good in both movies. She can act. I think Hollywood insiders who vote love the money Hunger Games made and a franchise or trilogy is a boon to many.

I haven't seen Chastain, but clearly the "hot" young actress that is Jlaw is riding a huge popularity wave. Me, I just think she is very lucky like so many young attractive girls who hit big. I PERSONALLY THOUGHT SANDRA BULLOCK WAS JUST OK AS THE MOM IN A GREAT TRUE STORY. sorry caps stuck, not yelling. I felt it was about a body of work over many years and the popularity of "cool" Sandra.

If you watched the oscars, the funniest moment was lothario Jack Nicholson at age 75 (or more) hitting on the very shapely Ms Lawrence (age 22). He is sad he is too old for a romance I read a few years back, but he sure was the comic relief. I love it that this man who used and dumped so many women is a laughable Grandpa to the hot young things. jack said he used to feel he was "irresistable" to women. Ummmm....was he ever a good looking guy? He claims he has great manners and was raised by all women. Contrasting him with the legendary Warren Beatty, who said he bedded 12,000 women. Yet he married at 54, adores his wife and four children. I cannot imagine how Annette found the courage to marry him and have a big family. Of course she was 20 years plus younger and stunning. She does not do the plastic thing, and they have lasted 20 years. I guess Warren was quite tired of bedhopping. I do feel he must be lying about the number.

LOL, funny answer Chris...Math must be proud. Jack claims 2,000 which seems accurate. I wonder if anyone knows what Our /Lady of Fatima said on this type behavior? Basically heaven won't be in the cards for "sins of the flesh." Heaven for many appears on this earth, I sometime think. Fatima history is fascinating. A great movie re the subject is "The thirteenth Day." Most recent movie on it. Of course there are dozens of great books, too.

Following the rules should bring graces-like sleep-notice the time...LOL ruefully said.

As Agatha Christie's Miss Marple said, you encounter the full spectrum of evil in a small village. I'd add to your description the thought that though I agree that human nature hasn't changed, the hardware has. A small number of people can do a lot more damage with today's armaments.

Interesting that you brought up Agatha Christie. I grew up reading her mysteries and still have at least 20 of her books in paperback. I loved how Christie was able to keep up the suspense of "who dunit" until the very end. Hercule Poirot was my favorite detective, although I enjoyed Miss Marple's homespun detective skills as well.